5.6 DATA COLLECTION STRATEGIES
5.6.2 The Interview as a source of Data
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177 Such questions in the interview, serves to verify and deepen the researchers’
understanding of the teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about investigations.
The questions in the questionnaire which differed from that of the interview were in Parts A and C of the questionnaire. As indicated in section 5.6.1 b Part A was concerned with the teachers’ biographical data while Part C was concerned with the challenges of implementing IPW.
(b) Type of interview
A semi-structured interview was decided upon for this study. Since the researcher was beginning the investigation with a fairly clear focus with respect to the implementation of IPW, more specific issues could be addressed through the interview. Furthermore, the interview was guided and open-ended. Since this study involved multiple-cases there was a need for some structure in order to ensure cross-case comparability rather than an unstructured interview.
While the researcher had a list of pre-determined questions to be covered as an interview guide the researcher and the interviewees had a great deal of flexibility enabling the researcher to follow-up certain aspects that may have arisen during the course of the interview. In this way the participants provided a more detailed and fuller description (Greeff, 2005). The final interview guide (Appendix E) consisted of twenty- seven main questions, which were open-ended. Where the participants required clarification, the researcher who acted as the interviewer elaborated.
In preparing the interview guide, due cognisance was taken of the order of the questions, so that questions pertaining to a particular topic or theme flowed reasonably well from one into the other. For example, the first few questions dealt with teacher’s views about practical work and IPW. The next group of questions pertained to teacher’s experiences with practical work and IPW. Keeping questions on a particular theme or topic together without the questions being too specific was also reflective of the information that was required to answer the key research questions. While this was the general trend in the structure of the interview guide, it did allow for some degree of flexibility, which was used later in the analysis.
In addition to the ordering and sequencing of questions due cognisance was also taken to ensure that the language was simple and comprehensible. Furthermore, the researcher repeated questions in a simpler form when the need arose during the interview.
178 (c) Conducting the Interview
Due to the researchers’ acquaintance and knowledge of the participant teachers through his professional responsibilities, it was decided to conduct face-to-face individual interviews with them instead of telephonic or focus group interviews. Individual face- to-face interview was chosen because the researcher wanted to understand each participant teachers’ body language and ease of responses to the questions. Care was taken to ensure that the interview was a social, interpersonal encounter and not merely a data collection exercise. In this respect the researcher’s cordial professional relationship and warm and friendly rapport with the teachers helped. Furthermore, the researcher created an atmosphere of openness and trust, by explaining to each participant that he was not there to judge them but to establish the current state of affairs with regards to IPW in Life Sciences.
In planning for the interviews the researcher held discussion with the participants to determine the date, time and location for the interview. In addition, the participants were informed that the interview would be audio-recorded and that if they had any objection to this they needed to let him know in advance. There were no objections in this respect. This discussion took place on the day that the researcher visited the relevant schools to collect the completed questionnaires. To ensure that the interview responses is analysed in detail it was imperative to capture the participant teachers’
responses completely and in their own words. Audio-recording the interviews was the most appropriate mechanism of achieving this. Creswell (1994) affirms that audio recorders and note taking are techniques used by researchers to record information from interviews. McMillan and Schumacher (2001, p. 450) contend that tape recording the interview ensures completeness of the verbal interaction and provides material for validity checks. The audio recording of interviews also provided a permanent record that captured all conversations verbatim, with the tone and volume of the voices of the speakers and the emphasis, pauses and nuances. This allowed the researcher to listen to the recordings as often as necessary so as to accurately understand what was being said.
A dictaphone was used to record the participants’ responses in this study. By taking notes only, one could risk losing the phrases and language used. The researcher did not take detailed notes in this case, but opted rather to concentrate on the responses of the participant in case there was a need for follow–up questions. In addition, the participants were reminded of the audio recording of the interview and the confidentiality of the information before the commencement of the interview.
179 The interview was conducted at a time mutually agreed upon by the researcher and the participant teachers. In all cases, these were held on a school day but in the afternoon and in the absence of learners. In all cases the venues where the interviews took place was quiet so that little or no outside noise / interference affected the quality of the recording of the interview. In addition, the venues were private and therefore the participants did not have to worry about being overheard. The interview with teacher one (T1) was held in the office of one of the Heads of Department at the school.
Interview with teacher two (T2) took place in her anteroom that is attached to her laboratory. Teacher three (T3) was interviewed in his office, while teacher four (T4) was interviewed in his classroom. Being familiar with the settings at each school by virtue of the researchers’ professional activities helped to understand what the participant teachers said in their own terms.
Each interview lasted for about one and a half hours.